The present application relates to a contact/non-contact type hybrid IC card, a communication method, a program and a communication system.
Services using a non-contact type IC card with a built-in coil antenna and IC chip are becoming widely available in daily use. The non-contact type IC card is capable of data communication when simply held over a reader/writer of a host device even while remaining inside a wallet, an IC card holder or the like, and thus is highly convenient. Therefore, an IC card system using such a non-contact type IC card is applied to various kinds of services such as an electronic money system, a transportation ticket gate system and a security system for entry and exit or login, for example.
In addition to the non-contact type IC card described above, another type of the IC card is a contact type IC card having a contact terminal. Furthermore, a hybrid IC card which incorporates functions of both the contact type IC card and the non-contact type IC card is being developed in order to reduce the number of IC cards carried by a user. For example, such a hybrid IC card is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-322544, Japanese Patent No. 3838901 and Japanese Patent No. 3528899. The hybrid IC cards have a contact interface and a non-contact interface on one chip and include a switch circuit for switching signals and powers from the respective interfaces therefor.
The hybrid IC card disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-322544 usually performs non-contact communication, and upon detecting that a power supply voltage is supplied to a contact terminal, switches a switch circuit to allow contact communication only. On the contrary, the hybrid IC card disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3838901 switches the contact communication function into the non-contact communication function immediately upon detecting that a sufficient radio frequency (RF) power has been generated by the non-contact interface. Furthermore, the hybrid IC card disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3528899 implements switching between the contact communication function and the non-contact communication function by incorporating the contact and non-contact interfaces.
As described above, the hybrid IC cards disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-322544, Japanese Patent No. 3838901, and Japanese Patent No. 3528899 switch between the contact communication function and the non-contact communication function by detecting the presence or absence of a power supply from the contact terminal, or an electromotive force in the antenna from an external magnetic field, or by further including an external clock signal.
Recently, when using a service function of an IC card, input of personal identification number (PIN) information, biometric information or the like is required in some cases in order to improve the security of the IC card. It is generally the case that a user inputs such personal identification information to an input device which is attached to a non-contact type reader/writer when using the card.
However, it is not assured that the non-contact type reader/writer which includes the input device is a truly reliable device in terms of security. For example, the possibility that a malicious person steals and leaks user's personal identification information which is input to the non-contact type reader/writer is undeniable. Particularly, a user inputs biometric information, which is unchangeable personal information, to an input device installed in a store, ATM or the like in a security system using biometric authentication, and it is not assured that the input device is reliable. If biometric information is input to an unreliable input device and then the information is leaked, this raises the problem of the need to deny the biometric information forever.